HOOEY HISTORY

Hooey History

A Guide to Some of the Monterey Bay Region's Best Kept Secrets

The phrase "Hooey History" was often used by the late Leon Rowland in his local history column "The Circuit Rider" which was published from the 1930s to the 1950s in the Santa Cruz News and later the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Rowland would chide writers and editors (including many in his own newspaper) about passing along what he called "hooey history." Rowland was tolerant of folks who made unwitting errors but he had little patience with writers who passed along the bogus stuff despite the truth being readily available. He was also exasperated by how difficult it was to stop the myths once they got loose in the land. I understand his frustration. I share his pain. It's time to pick up the Hooey History cudgel and pound down some of the bunkum which is sprouting up across the historical landscape in the Monterey Bay Region. So, with a low bow in the late Leon Rowland's direction, I now pick up the cudgel of Hooey History and resume the battle against historical nonsense and falsehood. (I also know that I might find myself pounding on my own head from time to time. That's the risk of being armed, you know. You run the risk of being killed with your own weapon.)